front diff noise

[locked up patrol]

done some beach driving over the weekend, and while driving along the beach at slow speed the front diff or axles made a loud banging noise and jerked the car suddenly, it done this about 5 times over about 20k distance.i had no lockers in, running 35 claws on the exit out which is about 10ks off gravel left it in 4wd it was fine,just wondering if it might be ahub jumping out or a cv joint?

[TOYRV6]

have you checked your tie rod ends mate? just a thought.

[locked up patrol]

no i havent mate will do, thanks for your input.

[Peter @ Aawen4x4]

Sounds like it's time to get the front of the vehicle jacked up with wheels clear of the ground, hubs locked, transmission & T/case both in Neutral, rear wheels chocked both ways! Then carefully and gently spin up each wheel (individually) listening for the noise or feeling for hard or lock spots as you do it!

Even just a grinding noise from the front may be an indicator or CV's on the way out, altho a bang and a jump sounds a bit more like diff or axle. Either way, spinning the wheels up one at a time should isolate the noise; if it doesn't, you can try spinning them both up together (probly need an offsider to do that!) and sort out the source of the noise that way!

Tell us what you find!

Cheers

[locked up patrol]

yeah thanks for that info, will check it out will let you know how it goes probably wont get to do it before thursday or friday thou due to work.

[locked up patrol]

just wondering if it would hurt to drive it on the black stuff in 4wd for a few k,s in 4wd and listen for a noise?

[Peter @ Aawen4x4]

DO NOT DRIVE IT IN 4WD ON THE BLACKTOP!! If you've got something that is not quite broken but making noises as it wears its last, driving in 4WD on the bitumen will kill it and probly take out whatever else it can along the way, things like transfer cases, gear boxes, uni joints, axles, wheel bearings, CV joints etc.

If you want to listen to it drive in 4WD, find some dirt or loose gravel etc! NOT BITUMEN!! But you are more likely to identify the noise if you can get the front of the car in the air with the engine OFF and turn things by hand! Doing the listening whilst moving with the engine running can make a noise appear to be coming from the front RHS CV joint when in reality it is coming from the LHS rear idler shaft bearing on the Trans case down and behind the driver!!

Engine off, front wheels in the air, Hubs locked, in neutral, all the better to hear you with! If you've got it down to a general area but not the exact area, try Roothy's big screwdriver stethoscope!! That WORK's!! Large screw driver, put the blade end on the object that you think the noise is coming from, and your ear on the handle end! If it is the source of the noise, you'll hear it! There are variations of the same thing, those of us with a little (or a lottle!) industrial deafness often benefit from putting the handle end of the screw driver up against the mastoid bone just behind the ear; it avoids bringing the damaged inner ear bits into the equation, and goes direct to the 'bone induction' type hearing method!

But you WILL get better results searching for this sort of noise once the car is stopped! Sure, you can reduce the area of search a little while it's driving, but you are gonna hafta do the specific search eventually, might as well be now!

Cheers!

[locked up patrol]

ok will NOT drive it on the blacktop will jack it up and listen for a noise. THANKS FOR ALL YOUR ADVICE .

[Peter @ Aawen4x4]

ok will NOT drive it on the blacktop will jack it up and listen for a noise. THANKS FOR ALL YOUR ADVICE .

Good! That could've been quite expensive! Not normally something that you want to do too much anyhoo, but with a noisy and suspect something, could be quite an expensive few metres!

[GQtoy]

Tailshaft uni's could be a possiblity.

[locked up patrol]

finally checked the front noise as decribed above found no noises at all, but the front right hand side locking hub seems to disengage itself so im guessing that is the noise, the hub is a AVM thanks for all the advice guys